Here's How A Blackmailer Took Over People's Computers

Why is my camera on again?
An paraplegic illegal alien named Luis "Guicho" Mijangos got victims to install keyloggers (which record the keystrokes on a computer) and other spy software on their computers.

Then he used the software to monitor their activity, turned on their Web cams to spy on them, stole naked pictures from their hard drives, and tried to extort money.

Finally, enough people reported the weird behavior to the police, and they arrested him in March 2010. He was just sentenced to 72 months in prison.

Ars Technica has the full story, but what we really wanted to know is: could this happen to you?

Yes. But not randomly -- only if you download suspicious files from the Internet.

The cracker's favorite tactic was uploading files masquerading as popular songs to P2P networks. The files actually called home to Mijangos' servers so he could download other software.